Prior art electrochemically driven engines utilize a passive battery system to provide an electrochemical source of power for the engine. The electrical capacity of the battery system which controls engine performance decreases during normal engine operation. Accordingly, research has been directed primarily to increasing the output capacity of the battery system and to recharging systems to repeatedly restore the battery system to its maximum capacity for reuse within a reasonable time period. The design of the engine was heretofore treated separately. Many of the problems attributable to the use of an electrochemical source of power for driving an engine are directly traceable to problems in the electrochemical power source (battery system) associated with oxide buildup, dendrite formation, gassing and passivation which reduce the electrical output discharge performance characteristic of the battery system and, in turn, materially affect engine operation and performance. To compensate against the degradation of battery capacity the conventional battery system needs to be continually recharged after relatively short intervals of usage to repeatedly restore the capacity of the battery well before the supply of anode and/or cathode material has been materially depleted.
The present engine design incorporates at least one electrochemical reaction cell as an integral part of the engine with the electrochemical reaction cell having a cathode, a rotatable enclosure containing a source of anode material and a source of fluid electrolyte. The rotatable enclosure is preferably a perforated cage and the source of anode material is preferably composed of a multiplicity of individual anode particles. Upon rotation of the cage containing the anode particles a dynamic interrelationship occurs between the operation of the engine and the operation of the electrochemical reaction cell. This dynamic interrelationship is caused by the rotation of the supply of anode particles relative to the cathode during engine operation and preferably in response to rotation of the engine motor. As the cage spins centrifugal (centripetal) forces compress the anode particles together and against the cage concomitantly with the electrochemical reaction process between the fluid electrolyte and the anode and cathode. Rotation of the cage causes a stratification to occur between anode particles which have oxidized and the non-oxidized anode particles so that only "fresh" anode particles, i.e. essentially non-oxidized particles, remain at the periphery of the cage adjacent to the cathode with the oxidized particles drawn toward the inner core of the cage. As a result of this stratification the formation of dendrites is inhibited and there is no loss in electrical contact between anode particles, particularly at the periphery of the cage, so that the interface spacing between the "fresh" anode particles and the cathode surface is maintained constant. The rotation of the cage also causes the fluid electrolyte to circulate through the space representing the interface between anode and cathode which has the effect of removing all electrochemical by-product contamination thereby keeping the surface of the anode particles at the periphery of the cage free of such contamination. Accordingly, the discharge characteristic of the electrochemical reaction cell (battery) does not drop off and instead remains substantially constant with engine power demand. As a result engine efficiency and performance does not degrade due to electrochemical inefficiency as in conventional electrochemical systems. Accordingly the radial engine of the present invention is able to sustain a high operating efficiency until almost complete exhaustion of the anode supply. In fact the electrochemical radial cell engine of the present invention operates at substantially close to maximum electrochemical efficiency without suffering substantial degradation in battery performance until the anode supply is essentially exhausted. Moreover, by integrating the electrochemical cell with the engine it is possible to provide auxiliary power in the form of both a source of alternating current, direct current and/or pulsating DC.
The electrochemical radial cell engine of the present invention provides an overall engine performance comparable to the performance of a conventional engine using conventional fossils fuels as their power source.